They say you’re crazy : how the world’s most powerful psychiatrists decide who’s normal

How are decisions made about who is normal? As a former consultant to those who construct the “bible of the mental-health professions,” the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), Paula Caplan offers and insider’s look at the process by which decisions about abnormality are made. Cutting through the professional psycho-babble, Caplan clearly assesses the astonishing extent to which scientific methods and evidence are disregarded as the handbook is developed. A must read for consumers and practitioners of the mental-health establishment, which through its creation of potentially damaging interpretations and labels, has the power to alter our lives in devastating ways. Discusses how the DSM is developed/assesses the extent to which scientific methods are disregarded/etc. * How Do They Decide Who Is Normal? * Whose Normality Is It, Anyway? * Do Mental Health Professionals Think Anyone Is Normal? * How the American Psychiatric Association Decides Who Is Not NormalPart I * How the American Psychiatric Association Decides Who Is Not NormalPart II * Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder: If This Sounds Discouraging, Im Afraid It Is Meant To * How Gatekeeping Replaces Scientific Precision * What Motivates the DSM Authors? * Media: The Good and the Bad * Wheres the Harm, and What Will Help? If we allow others to decide whether or not we are normal, we lose the power to define, to judge, and, often, to respect ourselves. A shocking expose of the process by which the mental-health elite judge us all.